And another senior class, forced to measure the worth of its college years in other ways besides football.

Datone Jones had already won the important game. He had graduated (history) by the time he put on the pads for a new coach, with new demands. He and UCLA had honored the student-athlete bargain. But now, wouldn't it be nice to win some scoreboards as well?

"How can you say you're a champion if you've never been a champion?" Jones said. 'Champions know what it takes to win. They have somebody pushing them to that level. Now we have that warrior's mindset."

Defensive end Jones and 11 other senior starters also have a rainbow on which to land. It unfurls in San Diego on Thursday, against Baylor in the Holiday Bowl.

UCLA beat USC for the first time since 2006. It failed to lose at least six games for the first time since 2005. It beat three other bowl teams and won its way into the Pac-12 title game, instead of squeaking in because of somebody else's probation.

The Bruins are playing in a real bowl, with real history, for the first time since they beat Northwestern in the Sun Bowl in '05.

And they are playing in a bowl game with the same coach that got them there for only the second time since 2006.

Jim Mora watched last year's fiasco in San Francisco from upstairs. He quickly realized extreme measures were needed, including a Death Valley Days training camp in San Bernardino.

"It was 114 every day," Jones said. "I thought those practices would never end. I wanted to go home like everyone else.

"But by then the attitude had already changed. I knew it would be different from the first day he (Mora) walked through the door. All of us were tired of the inconsistent games and practices. And we all had aspirations of playing on the next level. He was a head coach on that level. He had the connections, the knowledge. So, by the end of that first meeting, we were ready to do something different."

Mora simply asked the Bruins to do things faster and harder and more comprehensively than Rick Neuheisel did.

That said, Neuheisel clearly was recruiting as well as he kept telling us he was. The Bruins are long past the day when USC coach Pete Carroll informed Norm Chow, then UCLA's offensive coordinator, that "we didn't recruit any of your players."

Indeed, there are 10 Bruins who played in 2010 or later who are in the NFL.

"It was never a question of not having talent," Jones said. "After these coaches got here, we told ourselves, let's do the little things. Let's lift on Saturdays. Let's watch more film.

"I never played on a team that did great things. I had thoughts of going to the next level last year, but once he (Mora) talked to me, I realized I hadn't been consistent enough. This year, a lot of teams couldn't compete with us because of all the work we put into the pot."

Jones' 35 career tackles for loss are 11th on UCLA's alltime list, behind Donnie Edwards and Carnell Lake and others who managed to prosper in the NFL despite the truncated practice field. He also has 13 sacks.

He continues a rich and recent tradition of UCLA stars from South L.A., those who have a degree in Life 101 before they even get to Westwood.

There was gunfire, with actual victims, in the yard outside Jones' apartment. As he said earlier this year, in words that everyone should heed, "When you see it close up, it's not like the movies."

Back then Jones thought he'd be an NBA player. "When my mom found out I was still on my travel ball team while I was playing football, it got ugly," he said.

When he started getting offers for football rather than basketball, the 6-foot-4, 275-pound Jones saw the light.

"People say they want to be an astronaut, or the President," Jones said. "I never met an astronaut. I never met the President. But I did meet NBA guys, and I did know guys who went to college. So that was what was realistic for me."

Now he and the Bruins can win a bowl game. They have lost nine of their previous 13. At that point Jones and the seniors can say they repaired the house.

"Next year UCLA will have a much better year than this year," Jones said. "That's the vision I see."

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